Monday, February 7, 2011

Day Two in Ethiopia January 31, 2011

After crashing to sleep from the previous day's activities, we woke up on Monday morning and had another good breakfast at the hotel.  We were then taken to the Holt Ethiopia offices to meet with the attorney who would be taking us to court.  The women working at the offices were very nice and working very hard for all of the adoptive families.  We were served coffee and tea.  We were instructed about what questions we would be asked by the judge and that she mostly wanted yes and no answers.  We were thinking though that Greg and I would go together as a couple before the judge...not so.  While waiting for out court appointment, we were able to look through Bejigo's file.  WOW!  Now I have more of an understanding of why this process takes so long.  In the file was all of the paperwork that we had compiled over months as well as it having to be translated into Amharic (the national language of Ethiopia.)  along with many other documents.  We found 2 very precious things in the file.  One was a picture of Bejigo at 2 months old, which would be the earliest picture that we have of him.  We also saw a picture of his birthmom.  What a beautiful woman!  He looks very much like her. Also at the office, I hear the song on their CD playing, "Thank you Lord, I thank you Lord!" which was so perfect timing for this whole experience and what was about to happen!


We then headed to the court, which was the highest court in Ethiopia.  When we pulled up to the building, this was not what I had expected.  It was just a plain building.  As we entered the building, we walked up several flights of stairs lined with people all looking very sad and upset.  There was one women in particular that caught both Greg and I's attention as we were walking.  She was sitting on the stairs, crying.  After discussing this with Greg, we think that she was Bejigo's birthmom, as we had just been staring at her picture 10 minutes before. 
We entered into a small room and sat down.  We did not wait very long and then our group of 4 couples were called in with the judge.  The judge was sitting down at a regular office desk.  She asked us a few questions such as, "Do we have other children? Do they know about this adoption? Are they happy about this adoption? Have we had adoption training? Have we met our child? Do we still want the child?"  Then, two of the families passed court, with us as being one of those families. Praise God!!!  The other 2 families were just missing a letter or signature so they will hopefully pass court in the next few weeks.  Then the judge said, "Then he is your son!!!"  We were ecstatic.  The moment that we have waited for for so long! 
 After the court hearing, we then went back to the hotel to change clothes and have lunch.  We were then taking out for a shopping trip.  There was a lot of traffic and it took us about 1 hour to get to where we were going.  The traffic was surprising.  The driving there is beyond anything that you can imagine.  No street signs, no traffic lights, just some sort of organized chaos that seems to work.  Drivers just politely honk their horns to get to where they need to be.  I also forgot to mention that their police are everywhere on the streets carrying machine guns! 

The men sitting in the blue camouflage were the police.

When we arrived at the shops, we had 40 minutes to shop.  I could have spent 40 minutes at one store.  They were filled with all types of fascinating items, clothes, hand carved art.  So our shopping was rushed, but I bought many great items including traditional clothes, sandals, a drum, Ethiopian crosses, a map, purse, t-shirt and other small things.  I felt like I was spending a lot of money but I really didn't just because 1 birr (Their 1 dollar bill) is only about 5 cents here.  So most items were very inexpensive!! I think that I spent 2000 birr total that day shopping!!!! 
While on this shopping trip, we encountered more beggars than we had anywhere else.  It was very hard.  They would come up to us on the street or in the van in a very non-threatening way asking for food or money. 
We then went back to our hotel for awhile and two other couples and us decided to go out for a nice dinner.  The hotel called a taxi for us but the taxi was running late, so one of the women at the hotel decided to drive us to the restaurant in her car.  There was not enough room for us all, so she made two trips.  Just a small taste of how sweet and generous the people are.  While riding to the restaurant, Avanti, I noticed the music playing in her car and I don't specifically remember the song that was playing it was a familiar Christian song. 
During dinner, which was wonderful Italian food, the power went out, but we were dining by candlelight so no big deal.  We were tired again from a long day and headed back to the hotel for bed.  Tomorrow.... sight-seeing around Addis Ababa with a rock star.... to be continued.

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